II. GEOGRAPHY

1. Geographical Location

MANAOAG, a four-century old municipality of the Province of Pangasinan is located at 120°27' to 120°32' longitude and 15°59' to 16°05' latitude.  The municipality is strategically located at the central part of the Province of Pangasinan.  It is bounded on the North by the Municipality of Pozorrubio;  on the South by the first class City of Urdaneta;  on the East by the Municipality of Laoac; and on the West by the towns of San Jacinto and Mapandan.  Dagupan City about 20 kilometers road distance west of the town where some of the Regional Government Offices and prestigious schools and universities are found.  It is almost 40 kilometers road distance from Lingayen, the province capital town.  It is about 60 kilometers south of San Fernando, La Union, the seat of Regional Offices for Region I; around 65 kilometers southwest of Baguio, the summer capital of the country; about 12 kilometers north of Urdaneta City, the commercial center of Eastern Pangasinan; and about 205 kilometers north of Manila.

1. LAND AREA

As per data obtained from the Bureau of Lands, Land Management Service, Regional Office, San Fernando, La Union the total land area is around 5,716.24 hectares, which is about 1.06% of the provincial land area of 536,818 hectares.  Pugaro is the biggest among the 26 barangays in terms of land area with 724.80 hectares or 12.68% to the total land area and Licsi is the smallest in land area.

URBAN AREA

Poblacion  and Calaocan which constitute the urban area has comprise an aggregate land area of 175.80 hectares which is 3.08% of the total municipal land area constitute the rural land area which is divided among twenty-four (24) rural barangays.

RURAL LAND AREA

A total land area of 5,540.44 hectares which is about 96.92% of the total municipal land area constitute the rural land area which is divided among twenty four (24) rural barangays.

1. TOPOGRAPHY

ELEVATION

The southern portion of the municipality's terrain is generally flat had an average elevation of 10 meters above sea level while the northern portion consisting of Barangay Pugaro, Babasit, Lipit Sur, Sapang and portion of Calaocan, the terrain slowly begin to rise wih the highest elevation of 51 meters above sea level.

SLOPE

About 4,536.865 hectares or 79.37% of the entire municipal land area can be categorized as level with 0% to 3%; 1,179.375 hectares or 20.63% consist of hilly with slopes ranging from 3% to 8% where you can find the highest portion of the town.

DRAINAGE AND SURFACE WATER

Manaoag is cris-crossed by two major rivers, the Aloragat River and Angalacan River.  The Angalacan River traverse Manaoag through Pozorrubio traversing the barangays of Lipit Norte, Lipit Sur, Pao, Sapang, Calaocan, Tebuel, Licsi, Pantal, Babasit, Bisal, Bucao and Baritao.The Aloragat River will enter Manaoag from Laoac and traversing the barangays of Nalsian, Pantal, Oraan West, Cabanbanan, Mermer, San Ramon and joining the Angalacan River at barangay Baritao and passing together going to the municipality of Mapandan.

1. CLIMATE

CLIMATE TYPE

Manaoag has a climate type that belongs to Type I, i.e. with two distinct seasons, the wet and the dry seasons.  The dry season lasts for six months. It begins in November until April, the month of March to April the days are relatively hot.  The rest of the months, May to October, constitute the rainy or wet season. However, for the past few years, it has become more and more evident that the dry season is actually longer than the wet season.  In all probability, this is the offshoot of the disturbed ecological balance as a direct result of the indiscriminate cutting of trees that adversely affected existing watersheds.

TEMPERATURE

The maximum average temperature of the municipality is 31.96%, which is considered moderately hot; the hottest temperature is recorded in the month of April with average maximum temperature of 34.5°c.  The average minimum temperature is 24.12°c, and the coldest month of the year is the month of January with an average minimum temperature of 22.1°c.

RAINFALL

The average rainfall of Manaoag is 161.87 millimeters.  July was recorded to have the highest rainfall of 908.8 millimeters, while March registered the lowest rainfall, it was almost zero.  Resultantly, March was the driest month of the year.

HUMIDITY

The municipality has an average humidity of 83.12%.  The highest relative humidity is 91.54% was recorded during the month of July, and the lowest is 76.7% registered during the month of March.

PREVAILING WIND DIRECTIONS

The prevailing wind directions which most affect the municipality came from the southwest and have the common behavior of going northwest, then finally westward to the China Sea.  Those winds are most prevailed during the months of June, July, August, September and the month of October.

TYPHOONS AND FLOOD OCCURENCES

For the past five (5) years (1990-1994), Manaoag was visited by typhoons of varying storm signal numbers and intensity. Typhoons for the year 1990-1994 visited Manaoag with more than 60 typhoons and tropical depressions.  These typhoons brought havoc to agricultural crops because floods follow that mandated all the flood-prone areas of the municipality.  They resulted to the drowning of some people and even destruction of several houses, fruit trees and the erosion of lands along the river banks.